Political parties publish more information about campaign finance than in the past but some important data is still missing

Publikováno:
17. května 2014

The results of the monitoring of electoral campaign to the European Parliament, performed by Transparency International Czech Republic, are not optimistic. Four parties out of ten do not have a transparent bank account. Some of the parties do not disclose information about the members of their electoral teams or media agencies they cooperate with. None of the monitored parties communicates the amount of money spent on advertisements or billboards. According to Admosphere, the amount of money spent on this campaign is up to 93 million CZK (3.4 million EUR). The situation will not improve without the law on political party financing.

In the past year, political parties received almost one billion CZK from the state budget. Most of them are now financing their electoral campaigns by these means. Transparency International gave them a mark for their levels of transparency (1-best, 5-worst). The most transparent information about their political campaign financing is offered by the Green Party and TOP 09. The Pirate Party got an imaginary 2. Most of the parties are in the centre – the Communist Party, the Free Citizens Party, the Social Democrats (ČSSD), KDU-ČSL and ODS. Towards the end of the spectrum are the governing parties – movements ANO and Úsvit (Dawn).

It has to be stressed that some progress can be seen among the parties. “There are some positive trends which show that transparency of the campaign is possible and that set requirements on the transparency of the political campaign financing are feasible,” says David Ondráčka, the director of Transparency International Czech Republic.